Man convicted in Feeding Our Future fraud hit with 10-year prison sentence

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A man who claimed to help serve thousands of meals per day to children through a Shakopee market as part of the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Feeding Our Future defendant sentenced

What we know:

Twenty-four-year-old Abdimajid Mohamed Nur learned his fate during sentencing on Monday in federal court. Along with 10 years behind bars, Nur was also ordered to pay nearly $48 million in restitution, the amount of money taken by the market through the scheme.

Nur was convicted at trial on 10 counts for his role in a scheme through Empire Cuisine & Market, a halal market in Shakopee, which was under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Nur was part of a group that claimed to serve thousands of meals to children each day through a federal nutrition program during the pandemic. However, at many of the Empire sites, no food was served, and at others, the food was actually being served by Shakopee Public Schools, not the market.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota says Nur created and submitted most of the fake meal counts, rosters of children eating at the sites, and invoices for the Empire sites.

What's next:

Nur was also charged and later pleaded guilty to being among several Feeding Our Future defendants who attempted to bribe a juror during their trial last year.

He will face another sentencing for that case at a later date.

How the money was spent

Dig deeper:

At trial, prosecutors said Nur and others laundered the money through shell companies and tried to make the ill-gotten funds appear to be money received for consulting services.

Prosecutors say Nur spent the money he pocketed from the scheme on a $64,000 Dodge Ram pickup, a $35,000 Hyundai Santa Fe, a honeymoon to the Maldives, buying jewelry in Dubai, and paying to fake his way through online college. For college, authorities say Nur enrolled in Herzing University, an online college with a campus in St. Louis Park, then paid $12,000 to a website that promises to complete homework for students.

Prosecutors say Nur ended up earning a bachelor's degree in healthcare management from Herzing with a 3.42 GPA in less than three years – despite graduating from Shakopee High School with a 1.75 GPA.

What they're saying:

At sentencing, Judge Nancy Brasel told Nur: "It is so disappointing and so disheartening that where others saw a crisis and rushed to help, you saw money and rushed to steal."